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I know I'm late to this discussion, but would like to reinforce the thought that he was being depicted as a young man as opposed to the later senior. The idea of the phoenix is, I feel, too romanticized

So the bird of Jove / Turns his new fledglings to the rising sun / And such as gaze upon the beams of day / With eves unwavering, for the use of heaven / He rears; but such as blink at Phoebus' rays / Casts from the nest."

Not sure if Dante borrowed from Lucan here, but the creator of the image in question could have borrowed from Dante....

Paradiso Canto XXIII:1-48 The Vision of Christ

Like a bird among the beloved leaves, who has brooded over the nest of her sweet chicks, in the night that hides all things from us, and who, prematurely, takes to the open branch, eager to see their longed-for aspect, and to find food to feed them, waiting the sun with ardent love, watching fixedly for the dawn to break, so was my Lady, standing, erect and ready, turned towards the region of the south where the sun moves slowest, so that as I looked at her in her anticipation and longing, I became like him, desiring, who wishes something new, and delights in hope.